WDF World Cup Men Teams 1991

World Cup VIII was held from 2 till 5 October 1991 in the Dutch seaside town of Zandvoort. No lees than 32 countries were present at the oche in the men’s event, which was a record. Among those 32 countries were five debuting countries; Russia, Luxembourg, Greece, Austria and the African Uganda.

The England men squad had plenty of choice in players and could even leave home this fabulous foursome: World Champion Dennis Priestley, number two in the world Mike Gregory, former world champion Bob Anderson and the 1989 Winmau World Masters Peter Evison. Of course the big question was which country could prevent the English team of claiming their seventh consecutive overall title.

In the team event England (John Lowe, Eric Bristow, Phil Taylor & Alan Warriner) reached the semi-finals by beating Scotland (J. Wilson, J. Harvey, P. Masson & R. Sharp) convincingly in the quarterfinals 9-2. Their opponent in the semi-finals was America (P. Lim, L. Butler, R. Lopez & T. Payne), who beat Belgium (B. Raes, L. Laurens, F. Devooght & JM. Dejonghe) 9-4 in their quarterfinal. In a very attractive semi-final between England and USA, the English won 9-5 thus taking some revenge for their 9-0 loss to America in the semi-finals at the World Cup in 1985.

In the other semi-final, Wales (L. Rees, E. Burden, M. Phillips & C. Johns) and the Republic of Ireland (J. Mckenna, J. Dunne, O'Shea JJ & G. Porter) find themselves facing each other. Wales quickly take a comfortable 6-0 lead, but the Irish fight back to 6-4 and 7-5. Eventually the Welshmen still win 9-5.

In the final Wales took a 2-0 lead but the English fought back and the game was level at 6-6. Then Eric Bristow wins his only match against Leighton Rees in a "comedy of errors" in 24 darts. Followed by John Lowe who beats Chris Johns in 17 darts and the score 8-6. Phil Taylor can bring the final to a finish but faces a strong playing Eric Burden who beats him in 16 darts. Finally, it is Alan Warriner who wins the team event for England in 13 darts (140, 140, 100, 97, 24 game shot).